Brief aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1914

This is ‘Brief aan Philip Zilcken’ a letter penned in London on January 22, 1914, by Walter Crane. Look at the sheer elegance of his handwriting, a process of forming thoughts into words, each stroke carrying its own weight and intention. The ink is thin, transparent, like a whisper across the page. You can almost feel the pressure of the nib as it dances, leaving behind a trail of thoughts, a record of a moment. He talks about being ‘very full of work’ but willing to make a design ‘for the great cause of International Peace’. That one flowing line encapsulating ‘International Peace’, stretches out. It makes me think of Cy Twombly. His mark-making was so free but he worked within very rigid parameters, he had a deep interest in both the classics and the present. Like Crane, his work embraced ambiguity, inviting multiple interpretations, rather than settling on fixed meanings.